12542 South 900 East
Draper, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Reid Beck House

Statement of Significant:


The Reid Beck House, constructed in 1899, is a two-story Victorian Eclectic brick residence. The building is locally significant under Criterion A for its association with the development of Draper in the first half of the twentieth century. The period of significance spans 1899 to 1943 during which time it was associated with three families that contributed to the transformation of Draper from an agricultural outpost to a prosperous community. Under Criterion A, the area of significance is Agriculture. The house is also eligible under Criterion B in the area of Education for its association with its most significant occupant, Reid Beck, the principal of the Draper Park School for twenty-six years.

The property is eligible within the Multiple Property Submission: Historic and Architectural Resources of Draper, Utah, 1849-1954. The associated historic context for the first two owners is the "Railroads, Mercantilism, and the Farming and Ranching Period, 1877-1917." The home was built for Walter J. and Emily C. Green. Walter J. Green was a sheep rancher and his large home reflects the success of the sheep industry in Draper at the turn of the twentieth century. The second owners, Peter C. and Mette M. Rasmussen, were Danish immigrants who were involved in the cattle industry, as well as owning a meat market and grocery store. The house as built for the Green family and subsequently occupied by the Rasmussen family represents a pattern of development in Draper at the turn of the twentieth century. It is one of six large, prominent homes built for successful sheep and cattle ranchers in the community.

Between 1917 and 1943, the house was occupied by Reid Beck during a later historic context, the "Twentieth-Century Community Development and the Poultry Industry Period, 1918-1954" from the Draper MPDF. Although many rural communities in Utah boasted long-term influential educators, Reid Beck's achievements in the Draper school system stand out among his peers. In an unprecedented gesture for the period, the Jordan School District purchased the former Green-Rasmussen home as an incentive for Reid Beck to relocate to Draper. The school district also allowed Reid Beck to recruit eight other teachers for a complete reorganization of the school. During Reid Beck's tenure as principal, the Draper community had one of the most respected public-school systems in Utah. The Reid Beck House is a contributing historic resource in Draper, Utah.

Early History of the Reid Beck House
Elias A. Smith, a probate judge, held the first patent to the land on which the Reid Beck House was located beginning in 1873. In December 1888, the deed was transferred to James Jensen (1848-1915). James Jensen was a lumber and hardware merchant. He lived with his wife, Annie Sophia Christensen Jensen (1849-1939), and his family in Crescent (later part of Sandy), Utah-a community three miles north of Draper. There is no indication that any structures were built on the property prior to the 1890s, although the current east-west road (12500 South) along the north property line was a well-used trail from the Draper town center to the Territorial Road (later State Street).
On July 29, 1896, James and Annie S. Jensen sold their Draper property to Alfred Green for $2,000. Alfred James Green (1864-1905) was born in Draper, the second son of English immigrants, William Green (1840-1915) and Jane Jeffery Green (1836-1875). The Green family home was just to the north of the property at 12484 S. 900 East. Alfred married Minnie Christianson (1868-?) in 1893, but the couple did not stay in Draper for long. On August 11, 1899, Alfred and Minnie Green, along with Alfred's brother and sister-in-law, Walter J. and Emily H. Green, granted a trust deed on the property to James E. Paine and L. B. Mattison. The deed was for $7,000, a substantial amount for the time period and probably indicating the construction of the house.' James E. Paine (1854-1922) was born in Michigan and came to Utah in 1875. He owned a "wools, hides, and pelts" store and, as a wool merchant, may have known the Green family through their sheep ranching activities

Walter John Green (1866-1941) was born in Draper. He married Emily Cunliffe on September 6, 1897. Emily Hilton Cunliffe Green (1871-1944) was born in Radcliffe, England, and immigrated to Utah with her family in 1875. Walter and Emily had two children, Valeria Renon (born in 1898) and Walter Cunliffe (born in 1899). Their large elegant home on 900 East was constructed during Walter Green's career as a sheep rancher. The house is a central-block-with-projecting bays house built in the Victorian style with a variety of materials: granite from the Salt Lake Temple quarry, smooth-face brick, rock-faced brick, and decorative wood shingles. The house has many intact features such as the staircase and colored art glass. It was one of six similarly large homes built in Draper near the turn of the twentieth century by sheep and cattle ranchers.

The house may have been too expensive or too much for the Green family to keep up, for within a few years, in October 1902, they sold it to James E. Paine for $7,800." James E. Paine continued to live in Salt Lake City, so the Greens may have stayed in the house until Paine sold the property to Peter C. Rasmussen in May 1904. By the 1910 census, Walter and Emily Green had moved next door to live with his twice-widowed father, William Green. After William Green's death in 1915, Walter and Emily Green moved to Salt Lake City where they lived until their deaths.

Peter Christian Rasmussen (1857-1932) was born in Denmark. In 1880, he married Mette Marie Jensen (1864-1944) in Denmark and the couple immigrated to Utah a few years later. They lived in a log cabin in Draper before building a home at 12085 S. 800 East. Mette Rasmussen gave birth to eighteen children, of whom seven lived to maturity. The couple also adopted an orphan boy that Peter Ramussen brought back to Draper after serving a mission in Denmark. Peter Rasmussen operated a grocery store and meat market. He also raised cattle. In 1904, Peter C. Rasmussen bought the former Green home for $4,000. On the 1920 census, they are living there with five children, two daughters-in-law, and one grandchild. While living in the house, Peter C. Rasmussen served twice as bishop of the Draper LDS Ward, once as acting bishop between 1906 and 1908, and later between September 1914 and May 1918. The Rasmussen family often held special church services in their home for the Danish-speaking members of the church in Draper. The Rasmussen family moved to Midvale, Utah, in late 1917 or early 1918. They sold their Draper house to the Jordan School District on October 9, 1918. Peter and Mette Rasmussen lived in the Midvale until their deaths in 1932 and 1944 respectively.